It's another self help book. Is this the one that will finally put you over the top, or another in a long line of endeavors that look like progress, but are really procrastination?
Inner Excellence: Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life
By: Jim Murphy
Published: 2020
360 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
As you have already gathered, this is a self-help book. One of thousands (millions?) so the point is what sets this one apart from all those other books? I'm sure it hasn't avoided all overlap, but the book does have a focus on character, and getting rid of self-centeredness that was refreshing.
What's the author's angle?
Jim Murphy played baseball in the minor leagues, and he was obsessed with winning. Then vision problems derailed his career, so he gave away most of his possessions and moved to the desert. Over the next five years he did nothing sports psychology, in an attempt to figure out how to compete in a way that produced calm regardless of the outcome. Something he had previously lacked. He draws explicit parallels to Thoreau:
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
He went to the desert, but the idea was similar. Of course, not everyone has the wherewithal to retreat to the desert to spend five years thinking. But potentially, if one did, it would bring some very valuable insights.
Who should read this book?
It's once again time to do the self-help math...
